The Chemist
by BlackScript
Summary: Professor Laney's brother has been admitted to Arkham Asylum. His therapist, Doctor Crane, and Professor Laney meet and immediately take a disgusted liking to one another. Both have a way about them that makes people flinch...except one another. It's just a matter of admitting it. Scarecrow X OC
1. Chapter 1

My phone screamed at me in the darkness. I felt my muscles tense at the sudden noise as I took in a gasp of air. My eyes soon began to get heavy again as I fumbled for my cell phone on my nightstand. I just managed to catch it before it fell to the floor.

"What time is it?" I asked as I answered the phone in an annoyed, but exhausted tone.

"It's four a.m. Am I speaking to Miss Laney?" Asked a man's bored voice on the other end.

"Unfortunately for me, yes. Who am I speaking to?" I knew when the words came tumbling out of my mouth there could be nothing good. Who calls someone at four a.m. with good news? The man explained to me that my younger brother, Alex, had been arrested and was currently being admitted to Arkham Asylum. They wouldn't tell me what for even when I began to yell. They insisted I come down to do the paperwork and to take up any issues. I had issues to say the least. They told me to come down at nine in the morning, but I was obviously upset. I threw on the jeans at the foot of my bed and the t-shirt from one of my dresser drawers. I grabbed my purse with my Taser in it as I walked out the door. It was Gotham after all.

I blew into the Arkham parking lot at over forty miles an hour at least. I parked sloppily and jumped out. I looked up at the looming building with a new found confidence….or anger. What was really the difference? I pushed open the door that led inside the dull grey and white building. A guard jumped out from behind the front counter with a confused expression. I turned to go for the door that indicated it went to the cells.

"Excuse me, Miss." He put a hand on my shoulder making me spin around and push him back.

"Do not touch me." I growled brushing my jacket off. So, I had a little bit of an ego.

"Why are you here?" Asked the tall guard with a protruding gut. His brown eyes connected with my green ones and he immediately looked to the wall. '

"My brother was just admitted. I need to speak to someone. There's been a mistake." I said sternly as I crossed my arms.

"Let me check the system." He stuttered through the sentence as he walked back behind the counter. He typed a little on the computer and then glanced up to me.

"Alex Laney?" He asked me with a wary expression.

"That would be him." I nodded the fire beginning to die down just a little.

"I'm sorry; Miss Laney, but you can't see him yet." He said honestly. Eyes never even left the computer screen. Coward.

"And why not?" Asked taking a deep breath as my hands came down loudly on the dirty grey counter.

"He hasn't been looked over by one of the doctors yet, Miss. It's Arkham procedure." He explained to me making me slam my hands on the counter again.

"When will one of the doctors be in?" I asked through my teeth.

"One of them has been contacted. He said he'd be right in." He muttered out as quickly as possible. I sighed as resigned to sitting myself down in one of the uncomfortable red plastic chairs that lined the walls. I tapped my foot, played with my phone, texted my boss to take the day off. At four-thirty the doors I walked through earlier opened as a lanky man stepped inside. I didn't get to see him as he walked passed me. All I noticed was the height, the nice suit, and briefcase. The man stopped at the desk and the guard gave him a report.

"This couldn't have waited?" I heard the man asked annoyed.

"Are you the doctor they called?" I blurted out as I stood up. The man turned around and glanced at me before his eyes wandered back to the report. His ice eyes looked back to me through his glasses.

"You are?" He asked me with a sigh. I walked forward so I was standing as tall as I could in front of him. I was only a couple inches shorter than him making my self-esteem go up in the slightest.

"I'm Professor Cara Laney." I held out my hand but he didn't take it as he scribbled something on the report the guard handed him.

"She's been here for nearly an hour, Doctor Crane." The guard explained looking at me.

"I would like to see my brother." I crossed my arms. Doctor Crane only looked amused by my demand.

"We don't all get what we like. Do we, Professor Laney?" He asked me beginning to walk to the other doors. I followed trying to keep up with his long strides.

"Slow down, will you?" I asked him.

"You aren't supposed to even be back here." He told me sternly. I chased him up three flights of stairs and into a dark hallway.

"You haven't sent me back down." I remarked making him smirk.

"You would just come back up." He scoffed. "I won't waste my time." He walked all the way to the end of the hallway to the last door that faced all the other. The name Jonathan Crane was written on the golden name plate, under that his title of director of Arkham. He took out his keys and unlocked the door as I followed him inside. The office was bare of anything other his desk, files, a bookshelf, and his diploma. None of the personal touches most offices possessed. He set down his case and sat at his desk. He gestured for me to sit as I gave him a look.

"I'd prefer to stand." I sighed.

"I'd prefer not to argue." He gestured again as I finally sat down in the leather chair in front of his desk. It made him seem taller somehow. He laced his fingers together and read my brother's police report out loud, which was probably illegal. Apparently, he'd had a mental breakdown and killed…a few people.

"So, what he stays here or goes to prison?" I finally asked him after an awkward silence.

"Yes, that would be precisely his options." Doctor Crane was blunt with me.

"And what if he is insane?" I asked sighing. "I don't like that word but crazy sounds much worse." I muttered to myself.

"Then he'll be kept in the Asylum and be treated by me. Unless, I get the chance to pass some of my patients off to my staff." He explained fixing his glasses.

"Can I see him now?" I asked for the millionth time.

"Not until I speak with him."

"Then do it, will you?" I asked sharply. He seemed offended by my tone.

"I'll be sure to do it in a few hours. I have other patients to attend to." He gave me a harsh look.

"You're being vindictive." I growled in frustration at this man.

"You're being a distraction." He stood up and went over to his file cabinets. "I will speak with Mister Laney by nine. I won't be back in the office till three." He explained to me making me raise my eyebrow.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked standing myself.

"So, you can come back and bother me rather than bothering my staff. Goodbye, Professor Laney." He dismissed me making me set my jaw. I walked out of the office anyway. I had a feeling Jonathan Crane and I were going to butt heads. It might not be such a bad thing.

-This is my first story on here so any advice would be helpful. Thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

I slammed the door to my dark apartment as I flipped on lights and thought about the conversation with Doctor Crane only an hour ago.

"Oh, Alex, what have you done?" I asked myself as I passed a picture of him in my kitchen. When I thought about him my eyes wandered over to the rusty stain on the carpet that was currently being hidden by my only sofa. I always knew Alex had a problem and a big one at that. My head began filling with the foggy memory of him slicing my deltoid muscle in one of his fits of anger screaming about me having a chip in my that they were using to track him with. I swallowed hard as my hand crawled up to touch the light pink scar that had formed over the last month. "Mummy is going to be so ashamed of us." I winced as the familiar words formed on my tongue before walking back into the bathroom to get ready to teach.

"Mr. Williams!" I screamed from my desk as I stood up quickly making my old wood chair make a long screeching sound against the wood floor. The young twenty-something year old looked up at me with wide brown eyes behind his goggles.

"Yes, Professor Laney?" He asked me as the whole room slowed down, and I walked up to him making sure my heels were particularly loud against the floor.

"Aren't you a little old?" My sharp voice echoed against the old walls of the room as Williams sank farther down into his chair and slipped the goggles off through his light hair.

"W-what?" He stuttered the question out.

"You heard me." I looked down at him as I crossed my arms.

"I don't understand." He admitted softly. I took the gloves from my pocket and gave Williams a cold glare as I snapped them both on tightly. I leaned over and took the two chemicals he was about to mix for his project that was due next week. I held them up to my class of thirty as I walked back to my desk in front of the white board.

"Ten points to the person who can tell me what both of these chemicals are." I announced holding them up as I swirled them around in the glass containers.

"Nitric acid and hydrazine, Professor Laney." Ms. Kaplan told me from the back of the room. I looked at the girl with an amused expression.

"What happens when combined, Ms. Kaplan?" I asked her with a sigh. She brushed some of her blonde hair out of her face as she looked past be and to the white board. She always did.

"Explosion or fire can occur." She told me softly making me smile.

"Correct. Now, I know that Mr. Williams knows this considering it was taught last year and I reviewed it the beginning of this semester. Why would he mix these chemicals, then? No one? Really? Well, I have a hypothesis. Mr. Williams is sitting next to Ms. Foreman, an attractive woman and a clever one, too. She did much better than him on our most recent exam. I think, like a baboon, Mr. Williams is showing off and not paying attention. She could do much better. Couldn't you, Ms. Foreman?" I remarked in an elongated lecture as I looked every student in the eye regardless of how long it took for them to look up at me. I stared down the think young girl as she smiled a little and nodded.

"Yes, Professor Laney."

"Excellent choice of words, I…" Someone cleared their throat from the doorway making me snap my head over only to be met with Jonathan Crane's lean figure in the doorway. "I have some personal affairs that need attending. Leave. You best read chapter seventeen tonight." I ordered looking back at my students. They looked over to the doorway and all snickered or averted their gaze as they collected their things in a rush and put away what was needed. They were all gone within a fifteen minute period leaving me alone with Jonathan. He walked in and shut the door behind him as he looked around the room in downright distain.

"Hello, Professor Laney." He greeted as his feet finally stopped in front of my desk. I finally had the power play as I sat down at my disorganized desk.

"Sit." I ordered. He gave me this amused look as he pulled one of the chairs to my desk and sat down across from me. "What do I owe this visit, Jonathan?" I laced my fingers together like he had earlier and gave him a look.

"Doctor Crane." He corrected me.

"Yes, Jonathan, I know your name." I remarked boldly. He sat in the old chair and glared at me in anger as we both stared at each other in silence. I didn't look away as I made my next observation. "It's only one in the afternoon and you've disrupted my class."

"You did disrupt my Asylum." He pointed out arrogantly.

"As I recall you were the only doctor there and the disruption came from my brother. I assume this is what the visit is about." I remarked as we looked away from each other and I opened one of my drawers while he opened his briefcase.

"I spoke with him this morning. I diagnosed him with…" He began when I pulled out a pear and bit into it.

"Paranoid Schizophrenia." I nodded making him look up at me. I swallowed and sighed. "I figured."

"Why didn't you take him in sooner?" Jonathan took off his glasses and set aside his briefcase as he stared at me with a curious expression. One which I couldn't place, that wasn't normal for me. I leaned forward setting the fruit aside.

"Sentimental promises." I simply said. He was analyzing me and I knew it.

"Did he scare you?" He asked me out of nowhere. I have to admit I was taken aback by the oddness of the question.

"Excuse me?" I asked loudly.

"Did he scare you?" He practically demanded. I looked at the clock and saw a half hour had passed since we'd began this conversation. I looked to the door and saw other students and teachers who needed to speak to me pooling around the shut and, I suspect, locked door. I stood up and he followed suit as I thought.

"We'll finish this conversation over dinner. Meet me at seven at the restaurant on the corner of Cowsen and Leaf. Now, I have my own form of patients to attend to." And with that I strode over to the door and let the mess inside. As Jonathan left I swear I could see him smirking.


	3. Chapter 3

After classes let out I stayed for another three hours until the clock showed me it was already six-thirty. I fixed my makeup and brushed through my dark brown hair before throwing it back up into a tight bun to prevent it from being in my face. No one paid me much notice as I buttoned up my black coat and walked down to the middle of the hallway toward the front door of the university. I was thinking about what I was actually going to say to Jonathan. I shook it off as I got to my old car and shook my head. What did it matter what I said to him? He worked for me. I paid my taxes therefore I paid his salary, not to mention that he was treating my brother. I realized the bastard still hadn't let me see Alex today, which made me laugh a little. I had forgotten about him because of my fascination with his therapist. I arrived at the restaurant right on the dot as I walked through the doors craning my head to look around for the familiar doctor. No such luck. I walked to the woman at the desk in front of the menus as she looked up to me and gave me a fake overly cheery smile.

"How can I help you?" She asked me folding her dark skinned hands together onto the table.

"Has a man come in by himself, by chance? He's tall, odd glasses, probably with a briefcase, and with an unpleasant demeanor." I described him with a small smile as the woman looked taken aback I was being so blunt. She shook her head and opened her mouth to reply.

"How flattering, Professor." Jonathan's voice countered from behind me. I spun on my heel to see him walking inside without his handy briefcase surprisingly.

"I have seen you too much for one day." I commented rolling my eyes as he stood beside me.

"Just two, please." He asked the woman who turned around giving us unsure looks as she picked up two menus and led up passed people eating loudly and talking….loudly.

"Ah, you can be pleasant." I smiled as I pulled out my chair and sat across from him.

"When given a reason to." He remarked just as quickly as the woman set down our menus and rushed off from the table. I waited till she was gone then pushed the menu out of Jonathan's hands and leaned forward.  
"You've been distracting me all day." I said lowly staring at him suspiciously. Jonathan took off his glasses as he sighed.  
"Have you considered you've been distracting yourself?" He retorted making me bite the inside of my cheek.

"You asked me an odd question at my classroom. You asked me if Alex scared me. Why?" I demanded quickly not breaking eye contact.

"It was a psychological question." He explained calmly.

"You're lying." I glared sitting back. "Never mind that. How is he?" I asked as Jonathan picked up his menu once more and a young boy with black hair came to our table giving us the same smile as the woman.  
"Hello, my name is Jacob and I'll be your waiter tonight. Can I start you both off with something to drink?" He asked ringing his hands together.

"Water." Jonathan said shortly eyes still scanning the menu.

"Ice tea." I gave a small smile to Jacob as he walked away in a rush. I picked up the menu and quickly decided what I wanted to eat before folding it back up and staring at Jonathan. "You didn't answer my question."

"Your brother is a paranoid schizophrenic. I had to force feed him his medication this morning and he refuses to give us his information." Jonathan spit out like a machine.

"I can give you that." I noted nodding pulling out my phone to set some time to go down and fill out the pages of unnecessary paperwork I'm sure Jonathan would throw in to be spiteful.

"He did keep repeating things about his mother." That caught me off guard. I cleared my throat and tried to brush it off even though I knew he was staring at me threw his glasses.

"How odd." I lied knowing why he was panicking about it.

"Withholding information will not help him get better, Ms. Laney." Jonathan reminded me finally setting the menu aside. I licked my lips as I swallowed hard trying to come up with an answer. I finally met his eyes and opened my mouth.

"Alex is never going to be better, Jonathan. He's never going to be normal or fit into society so whatever I have to say is doing nothing other than satisfying your own personal curiosity." I said slowly making sure every syllable was clear

"I looked up your file in the system." He finally admitted as the waiter came around with the drinks and we ordered, putting the conversation of hold until he was gone again.

"You had no right."

"I had a medical reason."

"No, you didn't. You're treating my brother not me." My voice was shaking I was so angry he'd gone into my personal files.  
"Well, I had to see what kind of a caretaker he was with." Jonathan smirked knowing even if I did press charges he would win. "Arrested at fifteen, then again at seventeen, and finally at age twenty-three. At twenty-three you were arrested for assault against one of your students, but your minor records are sealed. Enlighten me, if you would." He leaned forward this time as I fought back the urge to slap him across that smug face.

"No, they're sealed for a reason." I retorted gripping the table.  
"I also saw you were admitted to Arkham when you were thirteen to fifteen for mild schizophrenia." He pointed out making me boil even more.  
"Alex's case is severe and I stay on my medication. I don't hear voices if that's what you're implying, Doctor." I remarked setting my jaw.

"It seems you do sometimes." And with that comment I actually did slap him as hard as I possibly could resulting in us being kicked out onto the street for fighting.  
"You bastard." I growled to him as he walked with me to my little red car.

"You were the one who slapped me." He pointed out, sneering at me in the process.

"You had to go into my file. You had to say those things. I've tried to move passed my issues, but for some reason you enjoy my suffering. Why can't I enjoy the physical pain I can cause you?" I asked eyes on fire ready to slap him again if needs be. He simply smiled.  
"I find physiological damage is much more effective than physical." He assured me as I rolled my eyes.  
"I'm sure you've tested the hypothesis." I rolled my eyes fishing for my keys trying not to look at the moron standing beside me.

"I've seen it." He simply explained. "I see it in your brother and you." I snapped my head over as he pushed my issues.

"I won't hesitate to slap you again." I reminded him as we finally approached my car.

"You've proven that." He ran his hand over his cheek where the red mark was still visible after five minutes. I ripped open my car door and slipped inside.

"I will see you in your office at seven am." And with that I drove away angry and curious.


End file.
